Once Upon a Time
by hedgehogsandangels
Summary: Once upon a time, there was a hunter, a boy, and a fallen angel. One shot.


Once upon a time, there was a hunter.

There are many hunters in the old stories, good and bad. Those who wield axes or arrows or long swords for slicing animals in two and those who protect little girls in red. Our hunter is very different.

He does not hunt wolves or deer or bears. His prey is far more dangerous and far more difficult to track.

He protects people but they rarely know this. Sometimes they're little girls in red but that is quite rare these days.

He hunts monsters and demons and the things that lurk in children's closets pretending to be sweaters and fur coats. He hunts the things that creep and crawl in the darkest recesses of the imagination where nightmares hide themselves and fester into the crevices of the mind.

He is not a bad person but he is not a good person either.

His work is a delicate thing. No one knows he's saved the world once or twice. No one knows his name or his face and no one thanks him. But he does his work all the same.

He has help, of course. His younger brother who he practically raised. And an angel who threw himself from heaven for the hunter and still goes unappreciated.

Their story is not a fairy tale.

There are fairies, monsters, witches, and wicked stepmothers but there are demons, angels, Satan, and God also. The little guy rarely wins and the good guy isn't always all good. Bad guys aren't always all bad. This is not a world of black and white because this is not a fairy tale. It is very, very, real.

Once upon a time, our hunter lost his mother.

Once upon another time, our hunter lost his father.

Twice, thrice, four times, twenty times, fifty times, one hundred and three times upon a time, our hunter died and came back from Hell.

Isn't he magnificent?

Have I painted a picture of the earth's greatest hero?

A selfless, brave, honest, true, and loyal individual who would die to protect a stranger?

I certainly hope not.

Our hunter has flaws.

A lot of flaws.

All of Heaven and Hell will stand up and agree that our hunter has flaws.

They might disagree over what those flaws are but that is neither here nor there.

Arrogant

Angry

Alcoholic

Ass

That's just the A's. The tip of the world's largest iceberg.

Hell hates our hunter because he kills its children.

Heaven hates our hunter because he ripped up its rule book and rewrote the end of the story. He added freedom and choice and goodness. He stopped the apocalypse in its tracks and tossed God's will in the garbage replacing it with a shiny new Free Will.

But their story is not only about our hunter, it is about the other two as well.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who was different.

There are a lot of boys who are different in story books and they are almost always the heroes. This boy is a hero but he's also broken.

People are very often broken but each breaks differently.

The boy's brother shattered into a pile of jagged glass, a weapon.

The boy crumpled and became a pile of dust, still sharp and stinging but easily cleaned up and put away. When he was a child, he cried and clung to our hunter's leg and asked a lot of questions that he had no business knowing the answers to.

He used to have dreams, a future, and a small chance…used to. Then (once upon a time) our hunter returned and whisked him away to hunt their old monsters and they haven't stopped.

The boy has demon blood running through his veins. In a way, he is a demon and human but he doesn't really belong to either world.

He is one of those creatures that hides the dark places in a child's mind, feeding off insecurities and fears and guilt. Festering like a disease until the time comes to strike down to very soul of his enemies. He craves demon's blood and fears nothing more than himself.

Poor boy...

Once upon a time, the boy became King of Hell.

Once upon a million times, the boy tried to sacrifice himself for our hunter and they both just barely escaped.

This boy is meant for greatness but the great things fate has planned for him are not things he wants. He wants life, beauty, his brother beside him, an open road before him, and the bluest of blue skies above his head.

Fate is not a patient creature.

She will not wait forever.

The boy king will have to take his throne someday.

Whether he likes it or not.

And, miraculously, he still believes this world to be a beautiful place.

He's just a boy.

Once upon a time, there was a mad angel who said freedom is a length of rope and God wants you to hang yourself with it.

Once upon a time, the angel was loyal and strong and full of good intentions, but that rarely works out in stories. He rescued our hunter and protected him and his brother because he was told to.

But slowly he began to feel, to see, to experience, to know a great and terrible entity called Free Will and he fell in love with many things. This was once upon a very long time ago indeed.

Celestial freedom can only be obtained by falling from grace so the angel threw himself from heaven and plummeted to earth because he could not be without this new freedom.

He betrayed his family, his home, and everything he ever knew for Free Will, the boy king of hell, and our lonely hunter who isn't all that lonely anymore.

He fell and is falling in every way imaginable. Black and broken wings streaming behind him, tears sliding down his cheeks, and arms spread wide to accept the earth as it speeds toward him.

The angel has done a lot of things he regrets, he's made more mistakes than he cares to admit but he keeps fighting.

Why?

Perhaps, it is because after war there is peace.

We know that's not true.

Perhaps, he believes there is something on this green and blue rock that is worth fighting and dying and living for. Perhaps that thing is Free Will or humans or our hunter and the rightful king of hell. He's never been asked and he probably wouldn't answer anyway.

We may never know why the angel keeps fighting or why our hunter refuses to give up or why the boy king refuses to ascend his throne.

But we know one thing.

They will not live happily ever after.

The world doesn't work like that and this is not a fairy tale, legend, or fable.

They'll fight for the rest of their lives but everybody dies just like moral and strength and honor.

One day, our hunter, the boy, and the angel will have to give up. Either by accepting Death's cold embrace or by waving the white flag to Heaven and Hell and taking what fate and destiny and God's will want to give them.

They will die.

Oh yes, they will die…


End file.
